to look squarely at u.s. foreign policy in the region. and what john mccain and lindsey graham are doing is a great disservice to america, because they're distracting us from confronting the extraordinary new challenges we face in north africa and in the middle east with this stuff, this partisan witch-hunt. and that flight from reality is at the heart of the current gop. >> you know, when president obama took office in 2009, the republicans were up against a president who was very popular coming off a historical election. nobody went after him except dick cheney. >> absolutely. >> dick cheney for the first four months, he was out there saying we're not on a war footing, that he doesn't understand security. >> absolutely. >> that we're less safe. and it seems like john mccain is now taking on this role. find anything you can and throw it at the president. >> throw it at the wall, throw it at the president. you know, the republicans have -- they don't have a lot of maneuvering room, to be honest, ed, because the president, though he has ended the war in iraq and is winding down the war in